Saturday, June 7, 2008

Stage 2 - Filling in with Color

At this point, I have to cover the panel with color, trying to maintain the overall tone of the original. This is a great example where using a "mother color" is extremely helpful. What's a mother color? It is a color that is mixed into every other color on the painting. In this case, the mother color is that light purple/pink tone that covered the original panel. It is mixed into every other color I put down. If I can get the values (darkness or lightness) correct, then it will work, even though the colors are unusual for a landscape.

So, I've put down color, started putting in basic light and dark shades for the major components. Not a lot of detail yet, but just creating form with light and dark. I painted out a few of the background horses, as I decided I didn't need them, and I'm sort of playing around with how best to do the rocky hillside in the background. There will probably be more changes, but the major elements are there, and I know I can make it work.